Birthday (song)
|DS = }} "Birthday" is a song written by Katy Perry for her fourth studio album, Prism. The song was selected to serve as the fourth official offering from the record on April 21, 2014 after being delayed by the unsuspecting success of the previous single, "Dark Horse". The song was also originally supposed to the be album's lead single. Perry's description of the song is that it's a "song that Mariah Carey would have put on her first record." The song surfaced online on October 16, 2013, two days prior to the official release of the album. Following the release of Prism, the song entered the single charts of South Korea and France. After being released as an official single, it reached the top 30 in Australia, UK, and Netherlands, number 17 on the US Billboard Hot 100, and number 7 on the Canadian Hot 100. Composition and production The song was written by Perry, Bonnie McKee, Cirkut, Dr. Luke, and Max Martin. The latter three produced the song and contributed to the instrumentation and programmed their respective instruments. The drums were played by Steven Wolf, while the horns were played by the Saturday Night Live Band, arranged by Lenny Pickett and engineered by Dave O'Donnell. Its audio engineering was done by Peter Carlsson, Clint Gibbs, Sam Holland, and Michael Illbert. The track was finally mixed by Serban Ghenea at the MixStar Studios in Virginia Beach, Virginia, accompanied by the mixing engineer, John Hanes. The song itself was recorded at various studios, including Luke's in the Boo in Malibu, California, Conway Recording Studios in Hollywood, California, Playback Recording Studio in Santa Barbara, California, MXM Studios in Stockholm, Sweden and Secret Garden Studios in Montecito, California. The song surfaced online on October 16, 2013—two days prior to the official release of Prism. On April 3, 2014, the singer announced on her Twitter account that "Birthday" would be released as the album's fourth single, posting its cover art as well. Artwork The artwork was officially revealed on Katy Perry's twitter with her saying, "In honor of #TBT may I present the cover of my NEXXXT single, ����BIRTHDAY���� pic.twitter.com/ykpqK4Xwtb". The artwork, featuring her older sister Angela Hudson during her birthday celebration as a child, revealed was a censored version which pixalized her sister's face. Afterwards Perry tweeted "IF you would like to see my sisters amazing face/pose get #BIRTHDAY trending to the top & I will UNLOCK the genius with you... Hahahahahaha", then tweeted the hash-tag "#Birthday" herself. After the hashtag finally trended the uncensored version of the artwork was revealed. Later Perry tweeted "HAHAHAHAHA #JusticeForAngela ������������������". The art is based on a photograph, taken during a birthday party circa 1990, in which a blonde Perry and her sister Angela Hudson smile toward the camera; "puffy" letter balloons were "photoshopped" onto the cover to spell out Perry's name. The song title appears in candles over a floral cake. Music Video To promote the single, a lyric video was uploaded onto Perry's Vevo account on April 10, 2014. It depicts a variety of cakes and sweets—among other confections—decorated with the song's lyrics and concludes with Perry lighting the last candle of a cake. A teaser for the official music video was released on April 22, 2014, two days before the official video release. The two minute trailer shows Perry dressed as many alter ego, including Goldie 'The Dancer', Yosef Shulem 'The MC', Kriss 'The Clown', Ace 'The Animal Trainer', and Princess Mandee. The trailer is censored during Ace's clip. The official music video for "Birthday" was directed by Marc Klasfeld and Danny Lockwood; Dawn Rose served as a producer, while Nicole Acacio served as executive producer, Richard Alarcon sereved as the editor, Tony Gardner as the make-up artist, and Joseph Robbins was the director of photography. For the video, which was filmed in April 2014, Perry played the characters of five party entertainers, appearing in five parties, ruining each one she attends. They consisted of a burlesque-like elderly woman named Goldie, a Jewish master of ceremonies named Yosef Shulem, a clown named Kriss, an animal trainer named Ace, and a face-painter named Princess Mandee. In order to transform Perry physically to each character, she spent up to seven hours getting prosthetic makeup applied by Tony Gardner. At the end of the video, each character is shown while the Cash Cash remix of Birthday is played The parties that Perry attended were real, and its participants were unaware of Perry's presence; the organizers believed they had signed up to star in a reality show called "Birthday Blowouts". Similarly, the majority of events that took place during the visual were staged without the knowledge of the celebrations' organizers and guests. For example, the car crash that occurs in the video left several children who observed it frightened and crying. Perry deemed the video "very intricate to make and shoot" and her "most insane" to date katy-perry-trasformazioni-004-Olycom.jpg|Perry as Yosef katy-perry.jpg|Perry as Ace Katy_Perry_Princess_Mandee.jpg|Perry as Princess Mandee Katy_Perry_Kris_the_Clown.jpg|Perry as Kriss Katy_Perry_Goldie_the_Dancer.jpg|Perry as Goldie Lyrics Commercial release Remix Digital The Cash Cash remix used in credits of the official video was released to digital vendors Jan 1, 2014. Physical Promotional CD released to radio in France. This uses the official single artwork, instead of the official remix artwork. Promotional physical United Kingdom References * ASCAP * BMI |} Category:Songs Category:Prism songs Category:Singles Category:Prism singles Category:Music videos